First of all, obviously his voice is not near what it used to be. That has to be said.

However, in the studio, it works fine for the most part. I've heard many prog vocalists not be up to par, and I am perfectly fine with their music.

(Hell, I was just listening to Steve Howe's "Beginnings" album today and liked it...LOL)

So, for me, his voice is good enough for studio recordings, with help. I enjoyed TAAB2 very much actually, Lots of quality compositions on it.

In concert, that's different. I'd just as soon listen to a different vocalist on stage, at least for a great many of the songs. Perhaps not all. But then again, I'm pretty well done with live Ian or Tull at this point.

I go pretty far back with Tull. First exposure being many years ago when Benefit came out. Tull for me was always a great band. In my humble opinion the finest of Tull came from the work of ...Barre, Glascock, Barlow, Evans, Hammond and Anderson. That band played it's tail off! All that said Barre was the magician...he kept the rock edge to Tull that gave them their popularity that crossed the boundaries of a heavy blues band that played some folk and classical, to a prog rock behemoth. Anderson always took the lions share of the credit and money from that band and over the years I guess he claimed the name too. But I became only a casual listener to the bands later works after "A" and now that Ian cut Martin for his own self preservation, I lost interest. I know the reviews were pretty good for the TAAB 2 album Ian made, but I never bought it. And I don't intend too. When I want Tull I have the real deal in my collection. And that's quite enough for me.

Saw Martin Barre at Bath Komedia late last year. I looked around and managed to count the people there. Couldn't have been much more than 60. He had a great guitarist playing with him. A French bloke - really nifty. It was a Sunday night mind - and the weather was sh*t.]]>
Tue, 25 Feb 2014 17:22:30 +0000http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=97145&PID=4948333#4948333http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=97145&PID=4945952#4945952
Author: AtavachronSubject: 97145Posted: February 21 2014 at 18:44

It's not optimism, it's a consistent pattern, and Tull are not facing what Zep, Beatles or the Who did (essentially death). Just look at the Barre/Anderson history-- if anyone wanted to bet me they wouldn't be back I'd take that bet in a heartbeat.

Falling out or not, if they're both still healthy, eventually Barre/Anderson will return. They always have and probably always will, separate projects or not. We've all been putting up with Ian's diminished voice since the late '80s, you take it or leave it.

I appreciate your optimism but really you never know. They might return or they might not. Gentle Giant never returned and neither did the Beatles. Led Zeppelin kind of did but not for another album. The same thing with the Who. So who knows what will happen. It seems neither Ian nor Martin even know. ]]>
Fri, 21 Feb 2014 18:39:00 +0000http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=97145&PID=4945949#4945949http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=97145&PID=4945424#4945424
Author: AtavachronSubject: 97145Posted: February 20 2014 at 21:01

Falling out or not, if they're both still healthy, eventually Barre/Anderson will return. They always have and probably always will, separate projects or not. We've all been putting up with Ian's diminished voice since the late '80s, you take it or leave it.

It definitely seems(key word here is seems)that Ian and Martin had some sort of falling out. It's unfortunate but sometimes musicians just go in different directions. From what I understand it was the record companies idea for him to do a TAAB 2 album but Ian chose to pursue it as a solo project rather than a JT one.

I do feel lucky in the sense that I was able to see JT live while the band were still active back in 2008. I saw Ian solo about two years prior to that and that show was actually just as good(if not better)than the JT show. ]]>
Thu, 20 Feb 2014 20:23:09 +0000http://www.progarchives.com/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=97145&PID=4945397#4945397